It was about this time, too, that he painted an old white horse in the stable of another wealthy man. After the picture was finished and ready to be delivered, it suddenly disappeared. Search was made for it everywhere but it was not found until twenty-four years afterwards. A servant had stolen it and hidden it in a hayloft. He was afraid to sell it, or even to keep it in his home, for every one would have recognized the great artist’s work.
It was Sir Edwin Landseer’s opinion that animals understand, feel, and reason just like people, and so he painted them as happy, sad, gay, dignified, frivolous, rich, poor, and in all ways just like human beings. This appealed to the people very much and he became very popular indeed. Every one knew of Landseer and each wanted a certain one of his pictures of dogs because the dog in it looked so much like a dog they knew.
For many years Sir Edwin Landseer lived and painted in his father’s house in a poor little room without even a carpet. The only furniture, we are told, consisted of three cheap chairs and an easel. But as his fame grew he had more orders than he could fill, and before long he was able to move into a fine studio near Regent’s Park. It was here that he painted the famous picture of Paul Pry. He was not a very good business man and he left all his affairs to his father, who sold his pictures for him and kept his accounts.
This story is told of Sir Edwin Landseer. At an evening party, at which Landseer was present, some one made the remark that no one had ever been found who could draw two things at the same time. Landseer quickly replied, “Oh, I can do that; lend me two pencils and I will show you.” In a very few minutes he drew with one hand the head of a horse, at the same time drawing a deer’s head with the other. Both were so good that they might well have been drawn one at a time and with much more effort.
Although Landseer painted so many wild animals, birds, and hunting scenes, he did not care to hunt or shoot. His pencil was his weapon. Sometimes he would hire a guide to take him into the wildest places in search of game. To the great surprise of his guide, instead of shooting when a great deer came bounding toward him, he would quickly make a drawing of it in his sketch book. A beautiful live deer was much more interesting to him than a dead one. He said, “To shoot a bird is to lose it.”
Edwin’s brother Thomas made engravings of nearly all of Edwin’s paintings, and so although we cannot afford to buy one of the paintings, we can easily have one of the prints from the engravings.
No English painter has ever been more appreciated and loved in his own country than Sir Edwin Landseer.
Questions about the artist. Who painted this picture? When did he first begin to draw? How many brothers and sisters did he have? How many of them liked to draw? Where did they live? What question did the father ask at the breakfast table? How did they decide? Where did they go? What animal did Edwin choose first? Who helped him? Where was “Edwin’s studio”? Tell about the pets these children had. Where did they keep them? Why did the owner refuse to rent Mr. Landseer a house? When Edwin was thirteen years old, which of his pictures were exhibited? What became of the sketches he made when he was a boy? Tell about the Newfoundland dog and the lion. What did the keeper at the Royal Academy call Edwin? What did Sir Edwin Landseer think animals could do that made them seem like people? Tell about the picture of the old white horse. Tell how Sir Edwin Landseer went hunting. Why did he not shoot? Tell about the drawings he made with both hands. How did people like Sir Edwin Landseer and his paintings?
